Busta RhymesI’ve Already Outshined Your Favorite Rapper!!

After dropping his highly acclaimed The Big Bang in 2006, Busta Rhymes has been consistently making headlines, just not for his music. With various legal woes keeping him in court, and out of the studio, Bussa-Bus, with the help of DJ Superstar Jay, attempts to bring the focus back to the beats and rhymes with the ambitiously titled I’ve Already Outshined Your Favorite Rapper!!In terms of hits, Busta’s catalogue is unmatched. Still, the Flipmode general’s lyricism often goes underappreciated. In order to stake his claim as “King of the Remixes,” he splits the tape between high-powered R&B overdubs and street-oriented material. Busta further balances popular collaborations, like Rick Ross’s “Speedin’” and Shawty Lo’s “Dey Know,” with subterranean-sounding tracks, like “It’s Over.” On “Shine,” Bus spits pure venom (“Despite the fact that I’m loved when I ride the track/And I’m bugged and I might attack/With a few slugs that’ll strike ya back”), before flippin’ sexual metaphors on the feel-good hip-hop ode “On Top.”Busta goes behind the lens next, playing a porn director on the lyrical sex tape “Lights, Camera, Action,” as legendary beatmaker Teddy Riley provides a seductive thump to set the mood. Unfortunately, the disc loses focus when Superstar Jay crams in a string of ill-fitting remixes, which break up the tape’s hip-hop vibe. While Bus should get credit for dropping a heartfelt verse over Mario’s “Crying Out for Me,” the R&B track wears thin, while the remix of Janet Jackson’s poppy “Feedback” comes off like a sonic disruption.When it comes to making genre-defining bangers, Busta has undoubtedly outshined your favorite rapper. But despite all of his success, the L.O.N.S. alum fails to eclipse the game’s mixtape kings this go-round. With more than 16 years of hits to Busta Rhymes’s credit, his fans have come to expect a much bigger bang.—Navani Otero